Colombia: after eight days of repression in …

Thousands of people returned to the streets of Colombia on Wednesday to protest against Iván Duque’s government, the eighth day of the protests andn which so far there have been at least 24 dead and over 800 injured. At the same time, representatives of the National Unemployment Commission and lawmakers held a public hearing to seek a common solution social demands resulting from demonstrations and fierce police repression.

On another side, President Duque has started his round of dialogue with the heads of the main organs of the country’s judiciary, while his Minister of Labor, Ángel Custodio Cabrera, assured that the president was ready to meet the leaders of the protests next week.

However, from the street, while invitations to various mobilizations and vigils (vigils) and recommendations to avoid clashes with the security forces continued to circulate, Many demonstrators called initially for a demilitarization of the cities and an end to the repression.

If the repression and the riots have decreased in intensity in recent hours, complaints and claims for the dead and dozens of missing continue to multiply, inside and outside the country. According to the Ombudsman’s Office, there are 24 dead in the demonstrations, 23 civilians and one police officer, although this figure is far from those recorded by the National Strike Committee.

“It hurts (…) the negligence of a deaf government, which prefers to send public forces, instead of helping [a la gente], they prefer to help the banks, the big companies ”, declared the student Héctor Cuinemi (19 years old) in Bogotá.

Under the magnifying glass of the international community, which denounced the excesses of the public force in the repression of demonstrations, students, unions, indigenous people and other sectors took to the streets of the main cities with festive and mostly peaceful marches.

After more than a week of mobilizations, the government gave in to dialogue and agreed to meet with non-compliant sectors “next week”, according to presidential adviser Miguel Ceballos.

The Supreme Court of Justice, the Constitutional Court, the Council of State and the Special Justice for Peace have asked to include “all actors” of “peaceful protest and social unrest” in the discussions.

Thousands of demonstrators protected by masks arrived in the afternoon in the central square of Bolívar, in Bogotá, next to the presidential headquarters. One group attempted to enter Congress but was disbanded by the police.

Various complaints

What started as a strike on April 28 to reject tax reform, withdrawn by the government after social rejection, has grown into one of the biggest protests against the Conservative government since taking office in 2018.

The demonstrators demand, among other things, better health and education conditions, safety in the regions and an end to police abuses against demonstrators.

“The police are attacking us (…), we are not vandals,” denounced Natalia (36), without giving her last name, who protested in a group dressed in mourning.

In the town of Pereira (west of Bogotá), a leader of the protests was shot dead and two other people were seriously injured in a video attack, closing the day of the protest. Thus, institutional violence became viral again on social networks, when different images quickly circulated of the moment when people in civilian clothes attacked a group of demonstrators.

The photos showed Lucas Villa, 37, who had been shot eight times, lying on his back and bleeding; and next to him, two other young injured, as reported The spectér.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) denounced for their part that the police had fired on demonstrators and that there were more than 30 dead.

Thousands of indigenous people joined in the protests in Cali (southwest) waving their batons and shouting “resistance”, while musicians and artists accompanied a massive march in Medellín (northwest) which took place. ended with a sit-in.

International condemnation

The pressure in the streets is not abating, given the vigilance of the international community which has denounced the police attacks on civilians. The UN, the European Union, the United States, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called for calm and demanded guarantees from the government.

According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, there were also 76 attacks against journalists, including ten injured by the security forces.

Bogotá had a tense night on Tuesday. About 30 citizens and 16 police officers were injured after clashes with soldiers that left 25 police stations affected, according to the local mayor’s office. Violence also erupted in Cali on Monday, leaving five dead and thirty injured.

According to the prosecution, behind the excesses are hiding FARC dissidents who strayed from the peace agreement signed in 2016, the ELN, the last recognized guerrilla in Colombia, and drug gangs.

Awaiting negotiation

The so-called Unemployment Committee, which brings together sectors demonstrating, said it was open to direct negotiations with the president.

Among the demands, the main points were the demilitarization, the punishment of those responsible for institutional violence, the guarantee of the right to social protest, the rejection of the legal status of the state, the internal unrest that the former president Álvaro Uribe promotes to limit constitutional guarantees, and negotiate emergency specifications, with the privatization of health care and labor reform in Congress.

The beginning of the dialogue is hardly a positive element at a time when, however, thousands of people stand firmly in the streets.

At the same time, in the city of Cali, which in recent days has become the epicenter of demonstrations and repression by state forces, the Catholic Church and civil society organizations have promoted a local agreement to open a humanitarian corridor that would supply the food shortage. and sanitary supplies.

With declining popularity (33%), Duque has been facing massive protests since 2019, plagued by discontent now fueled by the economic crisis that accompanied the health emergency.

Aunque el presidente withdrew the iniciativa de reforma tributaria y el ministro de Hacienda renunció, el malestar parece instalarse en uno de los países más desiguales del continente, con un desempleo del 16.8% y una pobreza que alcanza al 42.5% de la City.